summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorYunhong Jiang <yunhong.jiang@intel.com>2015-08-04 12:17:53 -0700
committerYunhong Jiang <yunhong.jiang@intel.com>2015-08-04 15:44:42 -0700
commit9ca8dbcc65cfc63d6f5ef3312a33184e1d726e00 (patch)
tree1c9cafbcd35f783a87880a10f85d1a060db1a563 /kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
parent98260f3884f4a202f9ca5eabed40b1354c489b29 (diff)
Add the rt linux 4.1.3-rt3 as base
Import the rt linux 4.1.3-rt3 as OPNFV kvm base. It's from git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rt/linux-rt-devel.git linux-4.1.y-rt and the base is: commit 0917f823c59692d751951bf5ea699a2d1e2f26a2 Author: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de> Date: Sat Jul 25 12:13:34 2015 +0200 Prepare v4.1.3-rt3 Signed-off-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de> We lose all the git history this way and it's not good. We should apply another opnfv project repo in future. Change-Id: I87543d81c9df70d99c5001fbdf646b202c19f423 Signed-off-by: Yunhong Jiang <yunhong.jiang@intel.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt')
-rw-r--r--kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt93
1 files changed, 93 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt b/kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dd62e1334
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kernel/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+Processor boosting control
+
+ - information for users -
+
+Quick guide for the impatient:
+--------------------
+/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
+controls the boost setting for the whole system. You can read and write
+that file with either "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting allowed).
+Reading or writing 1 does not mean that the system is boosting at this
+very moment, but only that the CPU _may_ raise the frequency at it's
+discretion.
+--------------------
+
+Introduction
+-------------
+Some CPUs support a functionality to raise the operating frequency of
+some cores in a multi-core package if certain conditions apply, mostly
+if the whole chip is not fully utilized and below it's intended thermal
+budget. The decision about boost disable/enable is made either at hardware
+(e.g. x86) or software (e.g ARM).
+On Intel CPUs this is called "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it "Turbo-Core",
+in technical documentation "Core performance boost". In Linux we use
+the term "boost" for convenience.
+
+Rationale for disable switch
+----------------------------
+
+Though the idea is to just give better performance without any user
+intervention, sometimes the need arises to disable this functionality.
+Most systems offer a switch in the (BIOS) firmware to disable the
+functionality at all, but a more fine-grained and dynamic control would
+be desirable:
+1. While running benchmarks, reproducible results are important. Since
+ the boosting functionality depends on the load of the whole package,
+ single thread performance can vary. By explicitly disabling the boost
+ functionality at least for the benchmark's run-time the system will run
+ at a fixed frequency and results are reproducible again.
+2. To examine the impact of the boosting functionality it is helpful
+ to do tests with and without boosting.
+3. Boosting means overclocking the processor, though under controlled
+ conditions. By raising the frequency and the voltage the processor
+ will consume more power than without the boosting, which may be
+ undesirable for instance for mobile users. Disabling boosting may
+ save power here, though this depends on the workload.
+
+
+User controlled switch
+----------------------
+
+To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the cpufreq core
+driver exports a sysfs knob to enable or disable it. There is a file:
+/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
+which can either read "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting enabled).
+The file is exported only when cpufreq driver supports boosting.
+Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that file anyway will
+return EINVAL.
+
+On supported CPUs one can write either a "0" or a "1" into this file.
+This will either disable the boost functionality on all cores in the
+whole system (0) or will allow the software or hardware to boost at will
+(1).
+
+Writing a "1" does not explicitly boost the system, but just allows the
+CPU to boost at their discretion. Some implementations take external
+factors like the chip's temperature into account, so boosting once does
+not necessarily mean that it will occur every time even using the exact
+same software setup.
+
+
+AMD legacy cpb switch
+---------------------
+The AMD powernow-k8 driver used to support a very similar switch to
+disable or enable the "Core Performance Boost" feature of some AMD CPUs.
+This switch was instantiated in each CPU's cpufreq directory
+(/sys/devices/system/cpu[0-9]*/cpufreq) and was called "cpb".
+Though the per CPU existence hints at a more fine grained control, the
+actual implementation only supported a system-global switch semantics,
+which was simply reflected into each CPU's file. Writing a 0 or 1 into it
+would pull the other CPUs to the same state.
+For compatibility reasons this file and its behavior is still supported
+on AMD CPUs, though it is now protected by a config switch
+(X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB). On Intel CPUs this file will never be created,
+even with the config option set.
+This functionality is considered legacy and will be removed in some future
+kernel version.
+
+More fine grained boosting control
+----------------------------------
+
+Technically it is possible to switch the boosting functionality at least
+on a per package basis, for some CPUs even per core. Currently the driver
+does not support it, but this may be implemented in the future.